Italy in the 2007 G8 Summit

Putin, Blair, and Prodi satired as in the famed Italian childhood story Pinocchio.

Italy is considered the worst offender in not meeting their G8 agreements in a study by the University of Toronto. It will be interesting to see what Prodi agrees to as his opinion polls are languishing and he has to work together with the highly unpopular George W. Bush.




Bush arrives in Rome today for the first time in 3 years and will be there through the weekend before heading to Germany for the summit. Some of Prodi's ministers are considering protesting Bush's presence.

Meanwhile, Prodi's government is "on the brink of collapse".

Italy won't be fully under the spot light as the US will be in vetoing climate action plans. Additionally, Germany will claim a lot of the media attention in hosting the summit. The next G8 summit will be in Italy in 2009.

The only apparent attention that Italy has received is criticism of avoiding African aid by U2's Bono. Italy owes $350 million USD and hasn't paid it's share of African aid for 2006 or 2007. Prodi promised to pay $540 million USD next year.